


Homesickness and Hand Holding

by carterhack



Category: Prince of peoria
Genre: Emil is sad, M/M, Teddy makes a gay promise, They love each other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-03
Updated: 2018-12-03
Packaged: 2019-09-06 08:45:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16829110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carterhack/pseuds/carterhack
Summary: Emil is homesick, so Teddy cheers him up.





	Homesickness and Hand Holding

Homesickness was a new experience for Emil. Sure, he would travel a lot for royal duties, but being royal and all led him to not having much of an opportunity to even experience homesickness considering he’d be going place to place before going immediately home. Now, however, laying in bed at roughly two in the morning in a new bed in a different country with nothing being familiar except his own skin, Emil was sick with his longing for home. He sighed softly, his chest feeling tight as he sat up in the, his, bed. He blinked, rubbing his eyes before turning over towards the other bed in the room. He knew that Teddy enjoyed his sleep, and he didn’t want to bring any disturbance to his new best friend and roommate, but unbearable pain in his chest made him speak. 

“Tuh- Teddy?” He whispered into the silence, pulling the blankets up to his chin and clenching his teeth. 

“What, Emil?” Teddy groaned, snapping his eyes open and turning towards the other boy in the room in groggy annoyance. 

“O-oh um…” Emil let out a small whimpery sigh, sniffing. “Sorry, nothing, I- nothing.” 

“Woah, woah,” Teddy’s eyes widened and he hopped off his bed. “Dude, are you crying?”

“No…” Emil shook his head, blinking back the tears that burned his eyes. “I just-” His voice broke and Teddy gave him an apologetic look as he sat across from him on his bed.

“Are you alright?” He whispered softly, putting a hand on his knee. Emil sniffed again, pushing the covers down and unclenching his jaw enough to speak properly.

“I-I’m fine…” He murmured. “I ju-just miss home a lot and my duh-dad and…” He broke off his sentence, a choked half-sob escaping his lips.

“Emil…” Teddy whispered, leaning forward and putting a hand on Emil’s shoulder. He wasn’t normally good with emotions, especially when people cried. There was just something about watching someone else cry that made him uncomfortable. Maybe it was the fact that he had a hard time showing other people these kinds of emotions, or maybe it was the fact that he just didn’t know what to do. He loved his mom, but she wasn’t always a great comforter and it made it harder for him to comfort others because of that. Either way, his heart suddenly swelled at the crying boy in front of him, and he had to do something this time. 

“C’mon,” He decided, pulling away from Emil and standing up again. “Follow me.” He held out his hand. Emil gave him a small, hopeful smile as he took his hand, pulling himself up.

“Where are we going?” He asked out loud, wiping at his eyes with the hand that wasn’t in Teddy’s grasp.

“Shh, my mom’s sleeping,” Teddy whispered, holding up a finger to his lips. In contradiction to this motion, a slight smile played across Teddy’s lips at familiarity of Emil being too loud. “And just… follow me.” He said this as if he had a choice, as he lead the taller boy downstairs into the bowling alley, keeping their hands interlocked the entire time. 

“Teddy, what are we-” Emil started, cut off by the other boy huffing.

“Do you trust me?” He chuckled lightly and Emil's eyes sparkled.

“Aladdin!” He exclaimed excitedly and Teddy stared at him.

“What?” Teddy frowned.

“You're quoting the Disney movie, Aladdin, right?” Emil asked, tilting his head with a smile. 

“Did I?” Teddy looked at Emil before smiling back at him, happy to see his friend wasn't so sad anymore. 

“Yeah!” Emil grinned now, momentarily forgetting why they were even out of bed. “That's that Aladdin says to Jasmine!” 

“Emil!” Teddy whisper-yelled, grabbing hold of Emil's arm lightly. “Shhh! You're gonna wake my mom!” Emil nodded, looking back at where they were. Upon looking up, he realized they were at the foosball table. 

“What is this?” Emil asked, running his hand over the smooth table to before poking at one of the little plastic men. 

“I'll show you.” Teddy went to the other side of the table. “Look, you stand there.” He pointed at the other side of the table and Emil nodded, doing so. 

“So,” He pulled out the little ball and put it on the table. “You just move the sticks like this,” He twisted the handle, making one of the plastic figurines kick the ball towards Emil's side. “And you try to make a goal like-”

“Soccer!” Emil exclaimed. “It's like mini soccer!” 

“Yeah,” Teddy chuckled, not even telling him to be quiet this time as he continued to show his friend how to play the game. 

* * *

Afterwards, they continued to play for awhile. Slowly, it turned into talking and looking at each other from across the table, abandoning their game and instead telling animated stories about their lives. Emil's eyes lit up and sparkled as he barreled into a story about him and his father. He was grinning now, but he had a sad look in his eyes. 

“You miss him a lot, huh?” Teddy asked, making his way over to the nearest chair and sat down. 

“Yes,” Emil smiled sadly and sat across from Teddy, close enough so that their legs pressed against each other. “I dearly miss him.” 

“How come you wanted to come to America,” Teddy paused slightly. “I know you wanted to be a normal kid, but why? Why'd you leave your friends and family to be normal?” 

“I just left my family.” Emil said softly. 

“What?” Teddy looked at him.

“I didn't have any friends,” Emil sighed. “I mean, not really. I was always with tutors and guards and surrounded by all these people… but I didn't have friends.” 

“That's why?” Teddy asked. 

“That, and I needed a break. Someday I'm going to have to be king and I need this before doing so. I need to be able to live normal and have friends before it all gets worse.” He chewed on his lip, looking down and kicking his feet. 

“Hey,” Teddy frowned, putting a hand on his shoulder. “I'm sorry, you must have a lot of pressure.” 

“Yes, very much so,” He huffed slightly. “And it's dreadfully lonely, I won't really have anyone until I get married and even then…” He paused and his face scrunched up as if he had eaten something sour. He did not want to go into arranged marriages with _princesses_ right now.

“You won't be lonely.” Teddy said, looking at his best friend. 

“Well, sure there's lots of people but it's not the same as-” 

“No, you have me,” Teddy looked at him. Usually, he didn't like to say things impulsively or make promises he wasn't one hundred percent sure he could keep, but he continued speaking. “I know it's a different country and you're going to be a king, but you'll still always have me, okay? We can still video call and text and keep contact, plus I can visit, yeah? You'll still always have me.” _Always_. That was a funny promise to make. It's such a strong promise to keep and Teddy would never have used the word in a promise before, but now it had to be true. He had to keep Emil in his life, always. He didn't want to think about why that was. 

“Teddy,” Emil whispered, slipping his hand into Teddy's nervously. Teddy's eyes widened slightly, but he squeezed his hand back. This was different from earlier, holding Emil's hand. It felt like just as much as a promise as the words stated before. It felt like an Always. It was like it was just them in the world, and for the first time as they sat there, hands interlocked in the middle of a dark bowling alley with a promise hanging between them, Emil didn't feel homesick. 


End file.
